Cuttle
Bone
Shaving
Shaved Cuttle
Bone is a
hygienic and easy way to offer cuttle bone to your birds without the
worries of disease associated with whole cuttle-bone.
We as breeders have all seen the porta potty cuttle bone caked in drying who knows what.
Then we witness our birds chewing on this same filthy/unsanitary thing.
Most may just ignore it but some like myself wonder if that is in any respect safe for our feathered friends.
I feel it is not and urge all pet owners to learn the art of shaving their cuttle-bone.
The easiest method is by using a grater on the finest side and filing away at your cuttlebone until the hard outer shell remains.
This is in-effectual as it leaves so much of the bone not utilized.
Another method is by mallet, but this is quite messy, un-predictable and can cause injuries f a sharp piece is ingested.
Finally; we have the easiest and neatest way of shaving.
The first thing you want to do is to halve and then quarter each half until you have eight medium sized pieces (figs. 1-2)
Next you want to use your chopping and blade and grind the cuttle bone into a fine powder. (fig. 3)
Once that is done you want to sieve the powder so that the larger chunks are separated (figs. 4-5)
You then keep chopping the larger chunks until they too are powdery and able to pass through the sieve.
After preparing the cuttle bone you want to serve it in the most beneficial and most hygienic method available.
If you serve it in an egg cup or a small seed cup, the cuttle bone will still be soiled by the birds as they are perchers and will perch on the cup and have a great chance over time to soil the cup and ruin all your hard work.
The best feeding vessel for the shaved cuttlebone is a finger cup. (fig. 6)
The finger cup can be purchased at most pet stores that carry birds.
The advantage of the finger cup is because of it's thinness the birds must
perch near the finger cup as if they perch on it they soil the food.
There is no 100% safe way to feed the cuttle bone and avoid soiling, but this in my opinion is the best method for keeping the cuttle bone cleaner and thereby your birds healthier longer.
We as breeders have all seen the porta potty cuttle bone caked in drying who knows what.
Then we witness our birds chewing on this same filthy/unsanitary thing.
Most may just ignore it but some like myself wonder if that is in any respect safe for our feathered friends.
I feel it is not and urge all pet owners to learn the art of shaving their cuttle-bone.
The easiest method is by using a grater on the finest side and filing away at your cuttlebone until the hard outer shell remains.
This is in-effectual as it leaves so much of the bone not utilized.
Another method is by mallet, but this is quite messy, un-predictable and can cause injuries f a sharp piece is ingested.
Finally; we have the easiest and neatest way of shaving.
The first thing you want to do is to halve and then quarter each half until you have eight medium sized pieces (figs. 1-2)
Next you want to use your chopping and blade and grind the cuttle bone into a fine powder. (fig. 3)
Once that is done you want to sieve the powder so that the larger chunks are separated (figs. 4-5)
You then keep chopping the larger chunks until they too are powdery and able to pass through the sieve.
After preparing the cuttle bone you want to serve it in the most beneficial and most hygienic method available.
If you serve it in an egg cup or a small seed cup, the cuttle bone will still be soiled by the birds as they are perchers and will perch on the cup and have a great chance over time to soil the cup and ruin all your hard work.
The best feeding vessel for the shaved cuttlebone is a finger cup. (fig. 6)
The finger cup can be purchased at most pet stores that carry birds.
The advantage of the finger cup is because of it's thinness the birds must
perch near the finger cup as if they perch on it they soil the food.
There is no 100% safe way to feed the cuttle bone and avoid soiling, but this in my opinion is the best method for keeping the cuttle bone cleaner and thereby your birds healthier longer.
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